Before Sunset

Inspired by the real-life experiences of director Richard Linklater, with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy also picking up the writer’s pen, Before Sunset sees the pair reunited 9 years after their initial meeting in Before Sunrise

Jesse (Hawke) has written a novel about meeting Celine (Delpy) on that fateful day. This time, they have just one afternoon to decide if parting all those years ago was a mistake.

The “youth rebellion continuum” of Linklater’s earlier films feels far more mature in this 2004 follow-up, with ideas of personal independence and life-long repercussions replacing the caution-to-the-wind, rose-tinted view of blossoming love in your early twenties. We’re giving minus points for Ethan Hawke’s sensible haircut in this instalment though. The sellout.

The Before… trilogy is showing in all its glory at The Mockingbird Cinema as a marathon that’ll make this one Sunday a day you’ll never forget.